NASA Names Sally Ride First Woman Astronaut
Sally Ride on this day was selected by NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, to be on the crew of the next space shuttle mission, making her the first woman astronaut. She became the first American woman in space in June 1983 (two Soviet Union women had previously been in space).
She had joined NASA in 1978, made a second trip in space in 1984, and retired from NASA in 1987.
Ride was very private about her personal life, and only after her death did it become public that her partner of 27 years had been another woman. Her partner accepted Ride’s Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2013. Sally Ride Science is an organization in her memory that promotes women in science.
Learn more at Sally Ride Science: https://sallyridescience.com/about-us/dr-sally-ride
And more at the Association for Women in Science: http://www.awis.org/
Watch an interview with Sally Ride: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb6vw9AmiLs
Reading for kids: Sally Ride, To Space and Back (1986)